This week marks the first running of the CR Racers Eternal Gratitude Special<\/I>, a $125,000 Owner restricted Stakes race for two-year-olds going a distance of one mile on the Dirt.<\/P>
While this may not necessarily your typical Stakes class field, only one horse from the field ever being entered in a Stakes event, it is a very promising field of 2yo\u2019s on the verge of making their open stakes debut.<\/P> RENIUS<\/B> \u2013 breaking from the rail, kingab<\/I> sends this wonderfully bred 2yo son of Storm<\/I> Cat<\/I> post-ward boasting a perfect two wins in two career starts, the last an impressive 1 \u00bc length victory over the Victoria oval, while flashing an eye-catching 87 speed figure for the 7 \u00bd furlongs.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Perfectly placed for his two-turn debut, this exceptional looking colt gains the service of SMELLY PASSING<\/B> \u2013 making her first two-turn start over the dirt course, inzy<\/I> enters his Pikepass<\/I> hopeful into the starting gate on Saturday off of a fast closing maiden victory over the Indiana racing surface at 7 furlongs in her last start.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Throw out that two-turn race over a yielding turf , she just didn\u2019t like getting her feet wet, but this promising young filly has displayed some late foot and appears ideally suited for this mile over the dirt course\u2026chance off best.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/P> CANNES<\/B> \u2013 winter\u2019s<\/I> Irish bred filly out of Footstepsinthesand(IRE)<\/I> enters this field off of a respectable 5th<\/SUP> place finish against similar in her last start over this same oval, and is eligible to improve off of that outing.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Another filly that likes to put it in gear in the final yards, look for her to pass some tiring horses down the stretch and be right in the mix should the speed falter\u2026stretch factor. <\/P> KODIAC CHARM(IRE)<\/B> \u2013in what is starting to look more like a race for fillies and mares, ace is taking her best shot with this 2yo daughter of Kodiac<\/I>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Four times in the money in five starts, this consistent filly has also improved speeds with every outing, and makes her two-turn and GLASS BLUE COW <\/B>\u2013 sounding more like something that you\u2019d find on grandma\u2019s mantle, lostorf<\/I> enters this first time starting Mingun<\/I> filly for a waltz around the eastern SILVER\u2019S JOY<\/B> \u2013 silver<\/I> tries the dirt for the first time for this very impressive 2yo Kitten\u2019s Joy<\/I> colt, which just might be the horse to catch in a field that appears void of speed.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Gate-to-wire winner in his last start, while posting an 87 speed figure for the mile over the Delaware turf, the top contenders better keep this speedball well within striking distance or they may find themselves racing for second place honors\u2026one to catch.<\/P> APPLESGOTYOUPIE<\/B> \u2013 trotter\u2019s<\/I> Silver Train<\/I> colt, this is the fields only entrant stakes proven contender with a win in the 7 \u00bd furlong MALICIOUSLY SMELL Bonanza two starts back.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Disappointed in last when missing by a nose against similar in his last start leaves him vulnerable against these, but still has to be considered a major player on Saturday\u2026one to beat.<\/P> PROMISED SO MUCH<\/B> \u2013 making his two-turn debut, ross<\/I> enters this talented son of Dixie Union<\/I> into Saturday\u2019s overnight.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In the money in three of his four starts this propitious 2yo has never finished more than 1 \u00bd lengths from the leader in any start and will not be frightened off by more accomplished rivals in this field \ud83d\ude09<\/STRONG> (thought I missed that in the chat, didn\u2019t you \ud83d\ude42<\/STRONG><\/P> HAWK SMASH(IRE) \u2013 <\/B>lids<\/I> enters yet another filly into this <\/B>Saturday\u2019s CR feature.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This 2yo Hawk Wing(IRE) filly will look to pressure Silver Joy<\/I> in the early going, and if she can hold on like she did in her previous two sprints, could soften up Silver Joy<\/I>, but I\u2019m not sure she could hold off the rest of the field after extending herself in the early going.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Could benefit from a turn-back in her next start however, something to tab for the future\u2026must show more.<\/P> HOLY SWORD<\/B> \u2013 slew<\/I> enters a first time Holy Bull<\/I> starter against this promising young field, and despite being the 5th<\/SUP> foal of a stakes winning, stakes producing mare, may be looking only to school this nicely bred colt for future endeavors.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Tall order on Saturday\u2026look elsewhere<\/P> CRAFTY GALLOP<\/B> \u2013 looks like ads<\/I> may have found the real deal in this yet another filly, this 2yo Crafty Prospector<\/I> gal has been all business since day one finishing no worse than 2nd<\/SUP> in her three career starts while posting speed of 76, 80, and 82 respectively.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Will take a modest jump in class with most of her success coming over\u00a0 <\/SPAN>moderate racing ovals, but she\u2019s improved her speeds in every start, and if she handles her two-turn debut is capable of pulling off an upset on Saturday\u2026may be this good.<\/P> NORTHERN SEEKER<\/B> \u2013 no telling how good balata\u2019s<\/I> 2yo Seeking the Gold<\/I> entrant is going to be, but off of his recent outing over the Kentucky racetrack at today\u2019s distance, he just might be the best 2yo to come out of this field and join the ranks of the top 2yo\u2019s in the world\u2026take some beating.<\/P> This is a race that on paper, looks like a toss up between the three top choices of RENIUS<\/B>, APPLESGOTYOUPIE<\/B>, and NORTHERN SEEKER<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>However, if\u00a0 <\/SPAN>SILVER\u2019S JOY<\/B> is allowed an uncontested lead, she could wire this field leaving the big three to fight it out for the place money.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>CRAFTY GALLOP <\/B>is a very nice looking filly, and while her speeds are very competitive with the top runners in this field, I expect the competition will be tougher than what she\u2019s been facing in DC and New Hampshire, and while I wouldn\u2019t rule her out, I\u2019d like to see more from her at this level before backing her at the window in this race.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Field of twelve enter the starting gate in the Eastern Kentucky undercard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/443"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}